Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

A few weeks ago, the adult Sunday School class were assigned a task: put a 48 piece puzzle together in under 7 minutes.

There were three puzzles and three tables with various persons at each table.

Two of the three tables had puzzle-people at them.

Puzzle-people are a rare breed.

They can almost hone in on the piece they need like a metal-detector on the beach.

The third table, which was coincidentally all male, had no puzzle-person at it.

The first table had their puzzle together in about a minute and a half.

The second in about three minutes.

Coming in third was the all-male table and they got it in about 6 and a half minutes.

So they still finished in time.

This morning, we’re putting a puzzle together.

Thankfully, it is not a large one, but it has massive implications for us.

There are only five pieces to this puzzle that Luke has put together for us.

What we’re doing today is breaking apart the pieces and looking at them and then putting it back together as we go.

In the end, we’re going to see a picture of Jesus that we have seen many times, but have probably forgotten just as many times if not more.

The first piece of the puzzle is the crowd.

The second is the companions, the third is the controversy.

The fourth piece is the clarification.

Finally, the commotion.

The Crowd

The Companions

The Controversy

The Clarification

The Commotion

The Crowd

The first piece of the puzzle that Luke set in place for us is the piece involving the crowd.

If we’re not careful, we overlook what Luke has told us about this crowd.

This is not the normal crowd that has flocked to Jesus.

Normal crowds were made up of regular, everyday people in search of healing and to hear a word from the prophet.

Luke tells us that this crowd is different.

This crowd is made up of Pharisees and law-teachers.

In our day, we might say that the regular crowds are the blue-collar workers, but his crowd is the intelligentsia.

These are the professors, the rabbis and experts.

These men were coming to hear from Jesus.

And they were coming from everywhere.

Luke tells us they came from all the villages in Galilee and Judea and even from Jerusalem.

Surely, he was exaggerating some here.

There were 2400 villages in Galilee alone.

So if only 1 Pharisee or law-teacher came from each village and only from Galilee, there’d be 2400+ of them.

Then you’d have to add Judea and Jerusalem as well.

On top of that there were about 6,000 Pharisees according to historic records.

But if we took 10% of that number, we’re looking at hundreds of these intelligentsia coming to Jesus to hear from him.

And their crowding into a house.

That being said, this is no camp meeting for people to get healed at; this was a conference for theologians.

Luke points out that even though this is a meeting of the minds, Jesus still has the power to heal, in a foreshadow of things to come.

But no one is there for healing.

They are only there to hear from this great teacher that has taken Galilee by storm.

And it is important to note that these are made up of Pharisees and law-teachers for a couple of reasons.

First, most law-teachers were Pharisees.

Some were not, but most were.

Secondly, they believed in what we would consider to be the entire Old Testament.

They believed and were experts in the Torah - The Law, The Nevi’im - The Prophets, and The Ketuvim - The Writings.

If you take the first three letters of each of those Hebrew words, you get the TNK or the Tanakh, which is the exact same thing as what we call the Old Testament.

This is critical to understanding something later in the text.

There are no Sadducees in this meeting.

The Sadducees did not believe in any book outside the first five books of the Bible.

Lastly, the Pharisees were all over Galilee, Judea, and in Jerusalem as well, just as Luke reported.

Sadducees lived in Jerusalem for the most part.

Some may have lived in towns just outside the city, but as they were the priestly class, they stayed around the temple.

They did not live too far from the temple.

So as we continue on with the narrative, keep the crowd in mind.

This is no small matter as to who makes up the crowd.

The Companions

So the first piece of the puzzle is the crowd made up of Pharisees and law-teachers.

The second piece of the puzzle that Luke puts into place are the companions that come to Jesus.

These are not part of the intelligentsia.

These are your regular old folks.

Apparently they did not get the memo that today was a non-healing day.

So here they come—one paralytic and a few helpers.

And the way that the text reads, these men are trying to get in to see Jesus, but there is no way through the crowd.

Keep in mind that these companions did not “fit in.”

The crowd was dense.

Everyone was trying to hear what Jesus was saying.

There is no way that anyone is going to make room for the likes of these companions, after all, this was not the time or the place for healing.

Have you ever noticed how many times people try to keep other people from Jesus in the Bible?

Here is one such a place.

But what about the children?

What about blind Bartimaeus?

Zacchaeus?

The prostitute who wept at Jesus’s feet?

Sometimes it was the Pharisees keeping them away; sometimes it was the disciples.

But it was never Jesus.

He always made time for them.

Every single one.

But it causes me to ask the question: am I keeping people away from Jesus?

In all my well-intentioned actions, is part of me trying to keep Jesus for myself by keeping others away from him?

Have you ever asked yourself that question?

The companions couldn’t find a way through the crowd as they were blocking their access.

So they found a way to circumvent the crowd.

On the side of houses, there were typically steps to the roof, but it could be that they found a ladder.

They went up on the roof, tore away the tiles, broke through the thatch, and lowered him to Jesus.

You know, while Jesus is always available, he is not always easily accessible.

R. C. Sproul wrote, “The earnestness of these friends shows us that getting close to Christ is not a casual thing for those who understand their need; they will stop at nothing to come to his presence.”

There are many who would say they need Jesus, but at the slightest hint of difficulty they stop short of getting to him.

These companions would not be denied access to Jesus even if it meant hoisting their friend up to a roof of a stranger’s house, ripping through the tiles, tying a rope around the man’s cot, and lowering him down, all the while interrupting the conference Jesus was putting on.

The Controversy

This takes us to the next piece in the puzzle.

The first was the crowd, the second the companions, and now the controversy.

Luke wrote, “Seeing their faith.”